Chelsio Delivers Industry’s First 10G Ethernet Storage Adapter That Supports SFP+

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHELSIO DELIVERS INDUSTRY’S FIRST 10G ETHERNET STORAGE ADAPTER THAT SUPPORTS SFP+

SUNNYVALE, CA, DECEMBER 19, 2007 – Chelsio Communications Inc., a leading provider of 10-Gigabit Ethernet unified wire solutions, today announced general availability of S310E-SR+, a new version of its best-in-class Storage Accelerator supporting the emerging small form factor pluggable (SFP+) optical module. The space-saving SFP+ module form-factor is gaining momentum as the new multi-source agreement (MSA) standard for next-generation 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE).

According to a recent Dell’Oro Group report (July 2006), 10G Ethernet optical port count shipments should approach nine million units in 2009, with SFP+ modules expected to be a substantial and rapidly growing portion of these shipments. SFP+ is the next-generation transceiver package for 10GbE, offering a more compact form factor than X2 or XFP packaging and lower power consumption (less than one watt). By removing clock and data recovery (CDR) and electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) responsibility from the transceiver, the SFP+ package achieves the same size as the industry-standard SFP form, while offering higher mounting densities than current 10G devices.

As commercial deployment of 10 Gigabit Ethernet grows, companies with massive data centers are seeking high density network infrastructure that provides the highest levels of access performance as the network convergence trend continues to accelerate, said Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO of Chelsio Communications. Our line of T3 based SFP+ unified wire adapters offer low cost, low power consumption and small footprint, while delivering the highest performance 10GbE network processing solution for our customers.

With its wide range of deployment options, leading cost performance, and low power, SFP+ is becoming the interface of choice in the data center. Using the SFP+ interface, customers can use cost-effective passive SFP+ copper cables to connect servers to a switch within a rack, and SFP+ SR or LR optics to connect the top-of-rack switch to the core, said Mansour Karam, director of marketing at Arastra. We look forward to working with Chelsio on driving market adoption of 10GbE SFP+ networking.

S310E-SR+ 10GbE Storage Accelerator is a single-port 10GBASE-SR 10GbE adapter with PCI Express host bus interface optimized for storage and unified wire applications. Utilizing third-generation technology from Chelsio, it provides the highest 10GbE performance available and dramatically lowers host system CPU communications overhead. With on-board hardware that offloads TCP/IP, iSCSI, and iWARP RDMA processing from its host system, the S310E frees up host CPU cycles for useful applications, while enabling increased network bandwidth and lower latency.

S310E-SR+ is list priced at $1,695 and is available from Bell Microproducts, Chelsio’s distribution partner.

About Chelsio Communications
Chelsio Communications is leading the convergence of networking, storage and clustering interconnects with its robust, high-performance and proven unified wire technology. Featuring a highly scalable and programmable architecture, Chelsio is shipping 10-Gigabit Ethernet and multi-port Gigabit Ethernet adapter cards, delivering the low latency and superior throughput required for high-performance computing applications. For more information, visit the company online at www.chelsio.com.

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Media Contact:
Dary Yos
Chelsio Communications
1.408.962.3642
dary@chelsio.com